A variety of absorbent articles that include different colored regions are available in the market. For instance, absorbent articles such as sanitary napkins and female adult incontinence articles that function to collect fluid discharged from a woman's vagina or urethra sometimes include colored regions to highlight various sections of the absorbent article. For instance the topsheet of the absorbent article may include topical additives such as lotions or hydrophilic coatings proximal the central portion of the absorbent article that are highlighted by color regions that differ in color from portions of the absorbent article remote from the central portion of the absorbent article. Such color regions can be made to highlight regions including the topical additives. For most applications, it is preferred that the topical additives such as lotions not include colorants that can transfer to a wearer's skin or clothing. As a result, the colored regions and topical additive regions are typically produced independent of one another requiring registration.
High speed manufacturing lines can include equipment and processing to apply topical additives such as lotions to web substrates during production of articles such as disposable absorbent articles. Such equipment can represent a significant capital cost to manufacturing. Adding printing capability to the manufacturing process in order to highlight the regions including topical additives represents an additional capital cost and complexity in order to register the printing with the regions including the topical additive. For manufacturers to effectively manage the cost, it is advantageous to use existing manufacturing lines to continue manufacturing absorbent articles. In some instances, the approach manufacturers have chosen to provide for colored regions might not be easily adapted to provide for colored regions that coincide with regions including lotion due to the crowded nature of the manufacturing line. Thus, if a manufacturer desires to provide for visual elements on regions of the absorbent article including topical additives, the manufacturer might have to retool the manufacturing line to provide for additional printing and registration capabilities, thus incurring significant additional capital cost.
With these limitations in mind, there is an unaddressed need for providing color change in the regions of a web substrate including topical additives that occurs simultaneously with application of the topical additive, thus eliminating the need for registration. In addition there is a need for web substrates having regions including topical additives such as lotion with colored regions that coincide with the topical additives regions that can be manufactured cost effectively using existing manufacturing capability. Still further there is a need for providing absorbent articles with colored regions coinciding with deformed regions and colored regions coinciding with topical additive regions without requiring additional printing or registration capabilities for registering the colored regions with the deformed regions and the topical additive regions.